PCLos 8 Tips

PCLOS 8 TIPSOur friend, and moderator on the PCLos forum Ikerekes, provided a link to a few PCLos tips posted by Texstar.I think it is worth to post it seperately in a new thread.

Texstar said:

This list may answer some common questions concerning PCLinuxOS. Q. When I boot pclinuxos from the LiveCD, Im getting out of space errors when trying to create /etc /home /root? A. You are running out of memory when booting PCLinuxOS. Recommended memory is 256 mb. Many directories need write access so PCLinuxOS copies these directories into RAM memory. Buy more memory. Q. What is the password for root and guest? A. The password for root is root. The password for guest is guest. Q. When I boot PCLinuxOS the cd hangs when probing usb? A. You might be able to get past this by typing livecd nousb at the boot prompt. Q. When booting PCLinuxOS, why do I see failed messages when probing for usb? A. This is normal. PCLinuxOS tries to modprobe different kernel drivers for your usb port until it finds the correct ones. Q. When I booted PCLinuxOS all I got was a black screen with a prompt? A. hwdetect could not determine the correct video driver for your video card. You might be able to boot my typing livecd xdrv=fbdev at the boot prompt. fbdev is a generic driver that should work with most video cards. If this option does not work, log in as root with password root, type XFdrake to set up your video card. Log out of root by typing exit, log in as guest with password guest and type startx to load the desktop. Q. Why does livecd hang at starting non-interactive mode and nothing else happens? A. This usually indicates a bad cd burn. Try another brand of CDR or burn the CD at a lower speed. I have had very good success at 16x speed Q. Can I install software while running the livecd? A. No, the crdrom is read only, however you can install software from our repository after a hard drive install. Q. Why does my computer freeze when trying to boot the livecd? A. Some motherboards require additional kernel options passed at the boot prompt. You may be able to boot by typing livecd noapic nolapic acpi=off at the boot prompt. Q. I'm not setup on broadband, how do I stop the livecd from trying to bring up eth0? A. Type livecd nonetwork at the boot prompt. Q. I've setup my usbkey but when I log in as guest it doesnt have my previous settings? A. When booting the livecd type livecd home=usb to let the livecd know you have a key plugged in. Q. Where is the installer and the usbkey setup routine? A. Log in as guest not root and click the icons on the desktop. Q. How do I set my computer to boot from CDROM? A. This is a bios setting. When starting your computer you will see output on the screen such as Press Delete, F2 or F10 to enter setup. This will take you into the bios configuration screens. What you want to do is set the first boot device as cdrom and the 2nd boot device as the harddrive. Q. How do I restore the bootsplash with the progress bar on the hard drive install? A. Click on Master Control -> Boot Theme -> OK Q. The old way of restoring lilo doesn't work any more with P8? A. The P8 is changed to udev from devfs. That's changing one command: konsole su to root mount -t proc none /dev/hdaX/proc mount -t none /dev /dev/hdaX/dev -o bind chroot /dev/hdx lilo -v (X = partition where you installed ie /dev/hda5) Q. How do I set up my desktop to see my other drives and partitions? A. Open KDE Control Center -> LooknFeel -> Behavior -> Click the Device Icons Tab and Check the box Show Device Icons. Click OKQ. I can't burn cd with k3b as user, only as rootA. With kernels 2.6.8 and up cdrecord shouldn't have to be suid program. as root issue command: chmod -s /usr/bin/cdrecord

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NOTE: Ivan reported us that for people on WiFi using PCLos 8.1 and 8.1a . . . . . you might want to stop the Shorewall firewall that is started by default, because it seems that if you have eth0 and eth1 ( 2 NICs ) and the wlan card is on eth1 all traffic on eth1 gets blocked.To stop shorewall give the following command as root: "service shorewall stop" . . . .or open the MCC --> System --> Services and press the "stop" button there for Shorewall.

An extra tip on partitioning for the HD install:As tool for partitioning I prefer DiskDrake from the 1st Mandrake CD, the one you find in the Master Control Center of PCLos should basically be identical. But note that only at a reboot the partition table is really written to HD.

Texstar said:

After creating and formatting your partitions, reboot the livecd and then do the install and uncheck the format box.

Personally I sometimes had problems when using Ext3 partitions, but since I switched to ReiserFS for the 5 GB partition the install is smooth as a baby. Bruno

I really have never played with this before today, but it seems like a great little use for PCLos! Take PCLos with you!What you need:

PCLos P8 LiveCD

A USB key (preferrably USB 2.0 compliant)

This nice little feature places a /home/guest folder on the USB key, allowing you to customize the guest environment to your liking, similar to MandrakeMove.What to do:1. Boot the live CD on a random computer. It really does not matter!2. Once logged in as guest, insert the USB key.3. Run the USB Key setup wizard located on your desktop. Note: The USB key wizard will place a single file on the key. Be sure you have enough space on the key. My key is a 256MB model, and I specified 100MB. The wizard will also ask if you want to format the key (you don't have to if it is already formatted and ready to go). You have the option of FAT16, FAT32, and ext2/3. Only use ext2/3 if you are going to use the key in linux only.4. Once the wizard is complete... you will need to log out and back in to KDE. (I simply rebooted at this point.... just to make sure. )5. Now you can customize the desktop to your liking, and the changes will be saved automatically! You can take the key and CD with you anywhere! Simply plug the key into a USB port, and boot the computer using livecd home=usb and have your own customized desktop wherever you go!EDIT: Spelling errors and minor corrections

Here are bits and pieces of troubleshooting from different threads on the forum: ( Thanks to Ivan and everybody that jumped in to help )Knotify: ( No Systemsounds )If suddenly after updating your HD install your system notifications are gone, here is what you do . . as user . . not as root, so no "su"

$ kwrite ~/.kde/share/config/knotifyrc

That will open a file where you see text . . compare it and make it 100% the same as:

DVD in Xine:First install plugins: libcss & libdvdcss !After that look in your /etc/fstab what /dev/hd?? your DVD player is and make a symlink

# ln -s /dev/hd?? /dev/dvd

( Note: Because of "udev" the symlink will be gone after a reboot, see next tip to make it permanent )Then if you get this error message:

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>>> Check if another program already uses PCM <<<snd_pcm_open() failed:-16:Device or resource busy

This means that Xine is trying to use the wrong sounddriver, to change that do as "user" ( not as "su" ):

$ xine -A arts

to use the arts driver or "xine -A alsa"to use the alsa driver.The /dev/dvd symlink The /dev/dvd symlink is not recreated by "udev" after a reboot, to force udev to make the link make a file called "/etc/udev/rules.d/dvd.rules" with in that file the following line: ( if /dev/hdc is the DVD device )